In the recent vehicle industry, the demand for durability and fuel economy is continuously increasing, and much effort is being directed to satisfying the demand.
In particular, many attempts have been made to enhance the properties of rubber for vehicle tires, especially tire treads in direct contact with roads. Conventional tire treads have been manufactured by mixing conjugated diene-based rubber with an inorganic filler for enhancing the properties as above, but problems of high hysteresis loss or low dispersibility may occur.
Hence, there is a need to develop rubber having high processability, excellent wet skid resistance and mechanical strength, and low rolling resistance, as a material for tire treads in order to improve performance of vehicle tires.
To this end, research is ongoing into a method of preparing a modified conjugated diene-based polymer, as disclosed in, for example, JP WO2005-097845 A1, but the effects thereof are insufficient.